Shared family vault
How the family organizer chooses which vaults the family shares, grants each member read-only or read & write access, and changes the vault key when someone loses access.
Shared Family Vault is where the organizer decides which of their vaults the family shares and who can open them. Access is granted with end-to-end encryption: the vault's key is re-wrapped for each member on your device, and the server never sees it (see Vault sharing).
Open it from Family settings → Shared Family Vault. Only the organizer manages this page; the people you share with see their side in My family.
Choose which vaults are shared#
Until you pick one, the page shows No shared vaults yet and a Choose vaults button.
- Select Choose vaults. The Choose your family vaults picker lists your vaults; search and tick as many as you like.
- Select Save shared vaults.
- Grant each member access, one by one, as described below.
Saving a selection only designates the vault as a family vault. Nobody can open it yet — you grant each member access separately, and they accept before they can open it. That keeps a mistaken tick from exposing anything.
Once you have chosen vaults, Change which vaults are shared reopens the picker. If you untick a vault, the picker warns you before you save: "You're about to stop sharing …. Members lose access, but anyone who already opened it still holds a copy of its key until you change it." Stopping to share does not retrieve a key a person already holds — see Changing the vault key.
Grant and manage access#
Each shared vault has its own card, headed with the vault's name and either Shared with N members or Nobody has access yet. Under Member access, every person in the family has a row with their status:
| Status shown | Meaning | Buttons |
|---|---|---|
| Organizer · owns this vault | You | — (labelled Owner) |
| No access yet | Nothing has been granted | Grant read-only, Grant read & write |
| Invitation sent — awaiting acceptance | The member has not accepted yet (badge Access pending) | — |
| Read-only | Can open items but not change them (badge Shared) | Make read & write, Revoke |
| Read & write | Can open and edit items (badge Shared) | Make read-only, Revoke |
Granting sends the member an invitation; they accept it from My family → Waiting for you. Your vault must be unlocked to grant access — if it is locked you are asked to unlock it and try again.
Revoke removes the member's access and rotates the vault's key so that the copy they held stops working. If the rotation cannot finish straight away (for example because your vault is locked), the page tells you to unlock the vault to finish securing it.
Changing the vault key#
When someone who had a vault loses access — because you revoked them, or because they left the family — their access is switched off immediately, but a copy of the vault's key may still sit on their device. A banner appears on the vault's card:
Someone who left still has an old copy of this vault's key. Their access is already switched off — changing the key retires the copy on their device, and only you can do that. Your vault needs to be unlocked.
Select Change the vault key. While it runs the button reads Securing… and the card shows the phase it is in; when it finishes you get a Vault secured confirmation.
Why only you can do this. PulsVault is zero-knowledge: the server holds your vault only as ciphertext and cannot re-encrypt it. A new key has to be generated and every item re-encrypted on a device that can open the vault — yours. That is also why your vault has to be unlocked first.
When the family's plan has ended#
If your plan has ended, a banner explains that you cannot change which vaults are shared or who can open them, and the grant, change and revoke controls are removed rather than greyed out. Existing access is untouched and everyone can still read what they already have. If a key change is owed, the card says it waits until the plan is renewed — nothing is building up in the meantime, because their access is already off. Renewing restores these controls.
Need tighter control?#
The family plan does not have separate "parental control" switches. What you control is which vaults exist for the family, who holds each one, and whether they may only read or also write. For the passwords members generate, use the family password rules.
Related#
- Members & invites
- My family — what a member sees
- Zero-knowledge model